Boise, owner of DeRidder paper mill, to be sold

Tuesday

Oct 1, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Future owner PCA speaks highly of DeRidder contributions

Sarah Crawford twitter.com/CrawfordBDN @CrawfordBDN

Boise Inc., the owner of the DeRidder mill, has announced that it will be acquired by Illinois-based Packaging Corporation of America (PCA) for around $1.9 billion. The agreement, which was revealed Sept. 16, is expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2013, according to a joint press release by both companies. "It's a new company and new people that will make decisions, but one of the keys of why PCA is buying Boise Inc. is because of the packaging business," said Greg Jones, director of investor relations at Boise. "And the key to Boise's packaging business is the DeRidder mill." In May of this year, Boise Inc. and Gov. Bobby Jindal announced that $111 million would be invested to upgrade a major newsprint machine at the DeRidder facility, reconfiguring it to produce packaging materials.In the prepared release regarding the sale, PCA Executive Chairman Paul Stecko specifically speaks about the benefit of obtaining the DeRidder mill and the machine reconfiguration in the deal. "[The acquisition] provides the containerboard that PCA needs to support our strong corrugated products growth," Stecko stated. "The DeRidder containerboard mill is low cost, located in a very good wood basket and, after the D2 machine conversion, provides almost one million tons of primarily lightweight containerboard."Dick Myers, public affairs manager for Boise and the DeRidder mill, said there are still many decisions to be made, but there are generally positive feelings about the future. "Right now people are busy making paper and converting that paper machine into a new workable liner machine," he said. "It should be finished next summer."